A refuge for remembering and reweaving parts of ourselves

Welcome.
I’m so glad you are here.  

My name is Laura. I am a somatic practitioner passionate about supporting people in finding safety, connection and belonging through the wisdom of their bodies. I support folks who want to feel more alive and connected, more at home in their bodies, and in touch with their vitality and purpose.

Why Somatics?

While our culture privileges the mind over the body, this work encourages a collaboration between the two.  

My work is rooted in an approach called NeuroAffective Touch,™ a somatic therapy grounded in the understanding that body sensations have meanings and hold a knowing that may have not yet been expressed in words. 

Many of us have disconnected or braced from parts of ourselves, from experiences that were overwhelming to us or from times in our lives when we were unmet or mis-attuned. Somatics acts as a bridge to reach these places and reconnect us to our wholeness and vitality.

Two essential aspects of this work are therapeutic touch and somatic inquiry.

Touch is the body’s first language.

With therapeutic touch, we support connection in present time with the body’s stories.  We work together to explore the felt sense of true safety as an embodied experience, not just an idea.  

Using attuned touch we communicate with the body through sensation and engage the language of the body at a level where we all received our first imprints.  This can be vital to supporting our body’s perception of safety which has a profound impact on how we feel and relate to ourselves and others.  

We invite both the mind and body to the conversation. 

With somatic inquiry, we invite dialogue with the body in its language of sensation, emotion and imagery.  We invite the messages of the body into awareness with curiosity and a witnessing presence.

The mind learns to partner with the body and orient to what is here now.  We learn to turn inwards towards our experience with curiosity and care.

I recommend reading this article for a comprehensive description of NeuroAffective Touch™ and what to expect. There are also videos describing the work here and here.  FAQ’s are below and give more detail on what a typical session looks like.

We heal best with others as witness, as support, as co-regulators.  The alchemy happens in the space in-between, in the shared journey and exploration of safety and belonging. 

I look forward to connecting.  

  • Many of us have cut off from our needs due to early patterns of unmet emotional needs and lack of nurturing touch. These experiences are still living in our bodies and impacting how we move through the world.  By exploring and negotiating core needs within a caring relational field, we set the stage to rebuild our connections to ourselves.

  • Many of us have disconnected from parts of ourselves, either from experiences that were overwhelming or from times when our needs were unmet by our caregivers.  Without realizing it, many of us developed adaptive behavior patterns (this was our system’s brilliance in getting us through!). Learning to meet these places within ourselves can help transform them.  

  • Bringing presence and witnessing to our body helps us connect in present time with our body’s stories.  Our body and mind can then learn to work together to process overwhelm, patterns of restriction, and more easily move to the present.  By interrupting the loops that keep us stuck in the past, we find ourselves more easily able to access an embodied present.  

  • Our early experiences lay the groundwork for our relational life.  Relational trauma and neglect compromise our ability to engage with others by replacing patterns of connection with patterns of protection.  Over time, these adaptive survival responses become habitual autonomic patterns embedded in our nervous system.  Ongoing experiences of trust and safety can help reshape them. 

This work can help you: 

FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions prospective clients often have. If you have other questions, please use my contact form and I will get in touch with you shortly.

  • Each session is a combination of talking as well as touch work on a massage table. Clients are fully clothed and I use intentional, mindful touch guided by what is present for the client. Table work generally involves using blankets and warm pillows to provide comfort and support. I finish each session with time to integrate what has unfolded and to share your experience.

  • This work can be an adjunct to talk therapy or stand-alone.


  • If you have done some inner work before and feel like there is more to deepen into, then yes, this work may be a good fit for you. 

  • I offer in-person sessions at my home office located in central Seattle. The address and detailed session info will be provided upon booking.

  • Sessions are usually 75 minutes in length. We can schedule sessions shorter or longer than this depending on your needs. I charge $180 per session and offer a portion of sliding scale spaces.

    I am committed to addressing differing levels of economic resources in this work. If this fee would represent a hardship, please reach out to me to explore what else might be possible.

  • It depends on what your goals are and what is present for you in your life. We work together to respect and follow the body’s pace.

  • “Laura’s hands have a presence that puts my nervous system at ease and allows me to deeply settle. I feel intentionally held and cared for during our sessions.”

    — K.R.

  • "Laura possesses a unique ability to allow people to feel comfortable and deeply cared for. She is welcoming and accepting of whatever shows up.”

    — A.T.

  • “Laura’s attentive demeanor and caring touch provide a safe environment where I feel supported to go deeper inside myself.”

    — S.T.

“Bodies are ancient and wise.  Minds sometimes can barely hold the complexity and depth of what the body brings.” 

— Aline LaPierre